How do I stop nuisance landline telephone calls.?

Question

I keep getting nuisance SPAM telephone calls through my landline. There's nothing more I appreciate than being woken up on a Saturday morning to be asked to be part of a shopping survey. I don't want to swear at these people (god knows its tempting) so can someone please tell me how to block unwanted calls (on mobiles and email too if you can). Thanks

Answer 1

register with the tps

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

Do the same as the big companies do - tell them you're going to have to put them on hold for a few moments while you get a pen and paper, then put the phone next to a tranny radio or something similar tuned to a music station. Then go about your business - like back to sleep or whatever!. They'll soon get the message - and even better, if you've got a phone with "Caller display" and they're stupid enough NOT to withold their number, make a note of it and phone them one night when you get home from a night out with the boys/girls at about two in the morning, and when they (eventually!) answer, ask them how THEY feel being disturbed by a nuisance call!
AND PLEASE -- Let's NOT have any of the do-gooders start shouting "OH BUT THEY'RE ONLY DOING THEIR JOB" - that's as maybe, but they're still a bloody nuisance AND intruding on your time and into your privacy.
Get out of that one!

Answer 4

BEST ANSWER....Radio Shack sells a product called "THE ZAPPER! Hands down...but...heads up...it WILL take accepting a few phone calls initially to make it effective. You hook it up to your land line and answer the call...it will make a very "annoying" high-pitched beep but this travels to "automated" dial circuits which will disable their system of "automated number searches"
and if you have an answering machine it's even better because then you don't have to have the beep in your ear! After about one week, our calls got less & less. Eventually, we didn't get any.

Can't do anything about the direct local calls from other landline phones though. Patience is virtue. Some people are just trying to earn a living...it's the politicians though that drive us crazy! Good luck.

Answer 5

If you're in the UK then you can register with the TPS (Telephone Preference Service). Telemarketing companies are not allowed to cold call anyone who is registered with the TPS. You can register your mobile number as well.

If you are being called by a company who have your permission to call (e.g. if you forgot to tick the box that said "don't call me" when you filled out the registration card for your new fridge), then they can still call you after you've registered with the TPS. You just need to ask the person who calls to take you off their list.

If you're with BT, their BT Privacy service will register you with the TPS and give you free caller id.

You can also register with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) if you want to stop getting junk mail. Again, you'll still need to opt out of ones you've personally signed up for.

Junk emails are hard to stop, but you can filter them with a program like Kaspersky.

Answer 6

I believe there is a service similar to that for stopping junk mail.

I have had a lot lately and now rarely answer the phone, just do a 1471 and call back.

One trick they do is a programme rings your phone, you answer it and there is no one there, this supplies them with a good time of day to ring you, it may not be that day but it might be the next or even a week later when you get that sales call, but it will be about the same time of day.

Answer 7

For landline contact the Telephone Preference Service www.tpsonline.org.uk. I've been registered with them for several years and they are very effective. I get no unsolicited calls, except from overseas call centres.

Answer 8

Register on the Preferential Telephone List, to have your name removed from lists used by call centres and telesales. Call 0845 0700 707 (Will take about 2 weeks to work through the system)

Answer 9

The Telephons Preference Service is the site to go to. If you are on BT the sign up for BT privacy too (it's free!), this worked better than tps and we get free caller ID on our phones too!

You could always be extremely rude to them, it gets you blacklisted and relieves stress in one easy move!

Answer 10

Screen them with your answering machine; tell your friends you're doing this so that they stay on the line. I think there's also a do-not-call thing you can sign up for--look online to find the website. Don't curse the callers out; they're only trying to earn a living.

Answer 11

Your telephone provider should be able to put you on to a data base of phone numbers that don't want 'cold calls.' I used to be plagued by these calls - one quick call to my telehone provider solved the problem.